Wednesday

Two of the largest craft breweries in the country have come out with very different, but equally interesting, mixed 12 packs.

Boston Beer Company (Samuel Adams) released the American Lager Pack, while Sierra Nevada Brewing Company of California and North Carolina released the Experimental Hop Pack.

The American Lager Pack (provided as a media sample) features six different lagers – Boston Lager, Noble Pils, Fresh As Helles, Kellerbier, Smoked Lager and the Coffee Black Lager.

In general, I like most of the Samuel Adams mixed packs, but this is probably the best they’ve released in years.

Noble Pils is an excellent beer and it’s always good to see it make its return to the lineup, even on a temporary basis. The Fresh as Helles is an interesting take on the style, brewed with orange blossom giving it an unique flavor.

The two newest beers in the pack, Kellerbier and Coffee Black Lager, are both excellent. The Kellerbier is a German-style of lager. It is medium-bodied with some toasty oak from being aged with oak chips. It’s definitely a pleasurable beer.

The Coffee Black Lager is a take on Samuel Adams’ classic Black Lager, with the addition of coffee. The coffee blends well with the dark malt flavors and lighter body. I’d buy a six pack of this one.

The weakest beer of the pack is the Smoked Lager. A good smoked lager can be a beautiful beer, but often they are either over-smoked or undersmoked (the smoke flavor is supposed to come from smoking the malts before brewing). The Samuel Adams version is on the undersmoked side. If not familiar with the style, it’s a decent introduction, but for fans of smoked beers, it’ll be little underwhelming.

The other new pack, the Sierra Nevada Experimental Hop Pack, features four different beers brewed with experimental hops. Most of the hops used don’t even have names yet, they have numbers. The four beers are a pilsner, a session IPA, an IPA and a double IPA.

The best beers in the pack are the pilsner and the double IPA.

The Experimental Hop Pilsner is about 5.4 percent alcohol by volume (ABV). The pilsner is crisp with traditional grassy flavors from the hops. The hops also give it a honey-like flavor with a hint of spice in the finish.

The Experimental Double IPA is citrusy and piney. The hops used are supposed to give the beer a barrel-aged quality, but I didn’t really get that. I got maybe a hint of vanilla-like oakiness, but it was barely there. Despite that, the beer is excellent.

The Experimental Hop IPA is fine. That’s the only way to describe it. There is nothing wrong with it. I’d happily drink it again, but I wouldn’t go out of my way for it.

The Experimental Hop Session IPA is much the same. The only warning about that beer is it is extremely light. If you drink any beer before that one, it will feel like you’re drinking water. Make it the first beer of the night.

Overall, I enjoyed both packs and recommend both.

Norman Miller is a Daily News staff writer. Email him at nmiller@wickedlocal.com or call at 508-626-3823. Check out the Beer Nut blog at blogs.wickedlocal.com/beernut. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @RealBeerNut and on Facebook at facebook.com/NormanMillerBeerNut.